Crime of the Century
by Chushingura
Summary: Gemma wakes up, realizing she's used the magic on accident again. Just a lemon. Oneshot, maybe twoshot if you ask nicely. Gemma/Kartik


I can't bear the thought of no more Gemma/Kartik. This skips over The Sweet Far Thing. I might update and add a little something between these two chapters. I don't know.

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Close your eyes and I'll kiss you, tomorrow I'll miss you. Remember I'll always be true. And then while I'm away, I'll write home every day. And I'll send all my loving to you. I'll pretend that I'm kissing the lips I am missing.

-The Beatles, All My Loving

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Love is not something that ends with a kiss and a "happily ever after". Love is continual. This lesson was one Gemma was learning more and more about every day. Kartik, her best friend, her lover, was forever lost in the realms and would never be part of her existence again. It wasn't happily ever after, or a kiss. Nor was it an end. Her love for him was limitless. It wasn't easy to put one foot in front of the other and continue on with her life without him.

No matter how hard it was, she knew, she would do it. She had to keep keep living, not just existing - this was what she had promised herself. The life she fought so hard for which allowed her to be as big as she wished in mind and waist, where she wasn't judged by the grace of her curtsey or the curls in her hair but by the words on her paper and the quickness of her tongue. Although she was not fully free here, she had liberties she had not had surrounded by society in England and India.

She returned to her modest flat near the campus after attending a history lecture. The university had not yet constructed a female dormitory as there were only three students there who were women. At first this had been cause for a lot of staring, and a few rude comments. Not as many as had been anticipated, though, as most men viewed school as a place without any female intrusion. Women belonged in the kitchen making babies, not broadening their minds.

Her classes were the ultimate rebellion against her grandmother and Mrs. Nightwing, the Rakshana and everyone else who would see her confined, and it felt good. Dulling the pain ever so slightly. It had been five months and four days since she got out of her bed, completely drained of tears and got on the boat to her new world. She had yet to return to the realms. She had assumed she wouldn't for another 15... or 50 years. She knew she couldn't put it off much longer, however. She felt it stirring beneath her skin. She was uneasy. The realms were apart of her, no matter how much she didn't want them to be.

She almost couldn't bear the thought of returning to the place that Kartik had died. She took a deep breath. If she could go to a men's university and escape the corset of london, she could do this, right? She sat on her bed with her head in her hands and closed her eyes. Before she could control it, she was visualizing the door of light and when she opened them, she was standing before it. It was as if no time had passed, like it was just her and Fee and Pip and Ann again, discovering it for the first time.

Without hesitation, she opened the door and stepped through to the garden. She admired it familiarly, the way a long married husband looks upon his wife beside him every morning. She saw the trees where she had laid in her hammock, the slightly shimmering toadstools where the runes once laid, and the paths she had explored with her friends.

She inhaled, her nose filled with the scents of her childhood. Everything was as it should be. She removed her boots and relished the feeling of the ground beneath her feet. There was a stirring in the bush and she turned, unsure of who it might be. A deer's nose poked out and, seeing her, it wandered out to investigate. She allowed it to sniff her hand and then went to pet the velvety fur behind it's ears.

Following it came a sight that made Gemma sure she would lose her lunch, collapse, and cry simultaneously. She was too stunned to do any of that, and before she did, he traced the steps of the doe to where she stood a few feet from the door and ran the pad of his thumb down her cheek.

Neither spoke and he continued caressing her face. She remained in her place, still too jolted to move, as if this hand on her face were attached and it was the only thing holding her up.

"I knew you would come back when you were ready", he said finally, his voice as soft as his touch. After thoroughly exploring her face his touch lowered to her partially exposed neck. On his fourth circulation she snapped out of her reverie.

"Kartik", his name came out as a sigh. "You're here? You're didn't..."

She couldn't bring herself to say it, incase he told her he was merely a figment of her bloody overactive imagination.

"Yes, I'm here. I'm apart of the realms now", he said, his hands still exploring her exposed skin. He was moving down to the collar of her plain blouse. "How long has it been? You have a new freckle just below your ear", he leaned down to kiss her neck to demonstrate where he meant.

"Five months", she admitted, distracted by his lips. "I'm at university now", she told him, trying to distract him from her absence. It worked, he raised his eyes to her. They were no longer the eyes she knew, they were black with pinpricks of white - the realms way of claiming him.

"A man's university?", he seemed amazed, causing her to laugh.

"Yes, a man's university. Time's are changing, Kartik", she smiled as she said it, suddenly radiant. It had set in. Kartik was here, he wasn't dead. She would have danced in circles if she didn't want to break her touch with him.

"And you are enjoying it?"

"Very much so. Much better than Mrs. Nightwing and Spence", she said, laughing some more.

"Anything would be better than that", he replied with a grin of his own.

"I've missed you", she said, suddenly very softly.

"I've missed you as well, Gemma", he replied in kind. "I did not know if it was a day, or a year. But I missed you every second."

She suddenly leaned up to kiss him. When their lips met, everything disappeared from her mind. The past five months, the past five years, her name. She felt his lips tense and pull into a smile which she returned. It was almost impossible. Their teeth were clashing however it didn't bother either. His hands were everywhere, moving from the top of her blouse to the waist of her skirt, searching for the buttons.

A shameless moan escaped her mouth as his moved to her jaw, kissing the tender part beneath it. He finally found his goal, unbuttoning her skirt and guiding her to step out of it. He quickly did the same with her blouse until they were both sitting at their feet like a blandly coloured puddle.

She looked down at herself, only in her chemise, then back at him. She was too excited about seeing him again to feel embarrassed. Her bliss emboldened her, enticing her to undress him as well. She barely noticed his clothes as they fell, then he was standing naked before her. She took a step back to admire him, less anxious now that his body was revealed to her fully.

His skin was taut over his muscled body, grown strong by his service for his previous brotherhood.

He couldn't take it any more. He wanted her naked with him, to be inside her, feeling her different textured walls. He ripped her chemise from her, stretching it as it was pulled over her head and mussed her hair. His hands squeezed her waist and moved up to glide over each pale, pink tipped breast. She whimpered, her nipples hardening by the slightest touch of his hands. Her knees suddenly felt weak again, but this time it was not from shock. He chuckled as he felt her beginning to shake and lowered her to the grass.

It felt like the softest of cashmere beneath her back. She didn't have to worry about grass or bugs getting any place it shouldn't, and the sky above her was laced with pink from the sunset. His warm body above her cradled her, causing her to arch up to connect them more.

His lips descended down her body, stopping to flick his tongue against a bead of sweat that had formed beneath her shirt. He bypassed the thicket of hair between her legs where she most wanted his touch and continued to caress her legs with his lips and fingers. It was a sweet, sweet torture. She couldn't decide if she wanted to beg him to stop and let her touch him as well, or to beg him to never stop.

She felt ready to lose control by the slightest touch to her apex. He seemed to know this and moved back up her body, avoiding her nipples as to not entice her further. His sex was large and aching as well, wanting to reunite with her in the most intimate way. He couldn't wait any longer.

"Are you ready", he whispered in her ear. His breath blew against her hair, tickling her softly.

"Yes. Please."

She was almost begging. He sighed, burying his face into her neck as he guided her hips up to position himself. He pushed in slowly, reminding himself that she was not used to this. Her eyes were closed tightly, anticipating the pain.

She found pressure and tightness, but very little pain, which encouraged her. She moved her hands from where they had been clutching the hairs at the back of his neck to his cheeks to guide his face to hers.

She looked into his dark, inhuman eyes and softened hers. She placed a chaste kiss on his lips and then grinned in a very un-ladylike manner. He seemed to let out a sigh of relief and eased himself the rest of the way in until he felt the barrier to her womb.

Her name flew out of his lips, smothering her body, suffocating her for a moment. She rolled him over so she sat on him like a man on a horse. She placed her hands on his chest to balance herself and experimented with movements. He filled her to completion. She moved up, then sighed when she moved back down, his base pressing against something wonderful.

He placed his hands on her hips and smiled in encouragement, then began to guide her movements. He pulled her forward which caused him to press against the spot that sent sparks behind her eyes again. She started a rhythm. Moving front, then back, getting quicker.

He was entranced by the sight of her. Her hair had become loose in the standard bun she wore it in. Strands fell about her face and more fell out as her movements became more erratic. Finally a high pitched sigh came out of her mouth and he removed a hand from her hip to place it between her legs and rub the bundle of nerves that marked her entrance. He squeezed it and rubbed it until he felt her inner walls quiver against him. He groaned, then allowed himself release as well. She collapsed atop him, her head coming to rest beneath his chin. She was still impaled on his sex.

He gently lifted her, her muscles still loose and relaxed from her climax, and laid her half beside, half still on top of him, her head staying in its place near his.

He wrapped both arms around her, wanting to bask in this aftermath for all his days.

Finally she stirred and planted kisses all over his face.

"How soon until we can do that again?", she asked, without the least bit of shame for her desires.

He chuckled and lowered his hand to lightly caress her bottom.

"Give it a few minutes", he said, amused by her reaction.

"I believe I have a few of those", she responded.

He gently swatted where he had been caressing and closed his eyes for a moment.

"Oh, Gemma."

He didn't have to say it. She knew, from his tone of voice.

"Kartik", she sighed in agreement.

"I love you" - sometimes it's something best left unsaid, unless you're someone who's story ends in "happily ever after" and a kiss.

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I really hope this lives up to expectations. ;D


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